This invention relates to electronically implemented games of chance and, more particularly, to data communications in electronic lottery-type games. The invention encompasses a method and apparatus for facilitating game play in an electronic lottery-type game, and a program product for facilitating the play of the game.
Lottery-type games are popular sources of revenue for governmental agencies and charitable organizations. As used in this disclosure, a xe2x80x9clottery-type gamexe2x80x9d comprises a game having a predetermined number of payouts or prizes and a determined chance of winning. For example, a lottery-type game may comprise a scratch-off or pull-tab game having a number of pre-printed tickets. Each ticket has some type of printed result indicator which indicates if the particular ticket is a winning ticket and, if the ticket is a winning ticket, indicates the prize or payout. The result indicator is commonly covered with some opaque cover material which may be scratched off or otherwise removed to reveal the indicator below. Thus, the ticket purchaser cannot see if the ticket is a winning ticket until purchasing the ticket and removing the opaque cover material.
Lottery-type games may be implemented through computer-based, electronic systems. Prior related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/479,975, describes an electronic, multi-level lottery type game in which the play of the game may imitate a regular casino game. However, the game described in this prior application is played with pools of game play records having predetermined outcomes similar to standard paper ticket based lottery games. Thus, the game provides the excitement of a regular casino-type game such as draw poker, for example, but with the security, verifiability, and fixed chances of winning provided by paper ticket based lottery games.
Electronically implemented lottery-type games may be implemented using a central processing system for storing the various pools of game play records and for distributing the game play records to player terminals which are in communication with the central processing system. The player terminals provide a display device for displaying information to the player, an arrangement for accepting a wager, and an arrangement for providing inputs from the player. A player enters the electronically implemented lottery-type game by making a game play request at a player terminal. In response to a game play request entered by the player, the central processing system sends information regarding a particular game play record to the player terminal. The player terminal then displays the information regarding the game play, and, in the case of the system described in prior related application Ser. No. 09/479,975, allows the player to make a response. This response enters the player in another or second level lottery-type game and results in information regarding a second level game play being communicated from the central processing system to the player terminal.
The prior electronic game described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,035 to Morris et al. incorporates all information required to define a game play into a video ticket. The incorporated information includes data for the various graphic symbols to be displayed to the player through the player terminal. This arrangement results in relatively large amounts of data having to be transferred to the player terminal for each game play.
The prior electronic game described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,494,197 to Troy et al. It utilizes a counter register and winning ticket table at a central processor. In response to a play request from a player terminal, the value in the counter register is incremented and then the winning ticket table is queried to determine if the resulting count corresponds to a winning electronic ticket. The central processor then sends back to the player terminal a packet of information including a winning or losing code as appropriate. The winning code includes the amount won on the play. The Troy Patent also suggests using the amount won to produce a graphic representation of the result at the player terminal. However, using the amount won on a play to communicate a winning ticket to a player terminal constrains the payout structure and graphics available in the game.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system which overcomes the above-described deficiencies and others in prior electronic lottery-type games. More particularly, it is an object of the invention to provide a method which reduces the amount of data transferred to the player terminals to communicate a game play in an electronic lottery-type game, and which provides flexibility in payout schedules as well as facilitates multi-level game play. A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus and program product to implement the method.
In order to accomplish these objects, game play records include or comprise a record index. The method according to the invention employs the record index to initiate a process using data stored at the player terminal to produce graphic representations at the player terminal. This method reduces the amount of data which must be communicated to the player terminal in response to a game play request. Also, the present method facilitates the play of interrelated, multi-level electronic lottery-type games which may imitate casino-type games while retaining the fairness and predetermined payouts associated with traditional paper ticket lottery games.
The invention includes the step of storing at least one pool of game play records at a central processing system. Each game play record includes a record index selected from a set of unique index values. In this sense xe2x80x9cuniquexe2x80x9d means that the index values in the set are each different and do not repeat within the set. Each index value in the set of unique index values is associated with a different result type. For example, in an electronic lottery game intended to imitate the play of draw poker, each unique index value in the set is associated with a type of hand in draw poker. Each type of hand corresponds to a particular result type and thus the result type defines the particular type of hand. One unique index value may be associated with the hand or result type xe2x80x9cthree of a kindxe2x80x9d while another unique index value may be associated with a xe2x80x9cfull housexe2x80x9d, for example. The number of different index values used in a game is equal to the number of different result types available in the game.
It will be noted that each different index value in the set of unique index values is associated with a result type and not a specific embodiment of the result type. For example, an index value associated with the result type xe2x80x9cfull housexe2x80x9d does not specify the particular cards included in the hand, other than cards which amount to a xe2x80x9cfull house,xe2x80x9d that is, a pair of one type of card and three of another type of card. It will also be noted that the result type is not evident from the index value which may be a numerical or alphanumeric value. Thus, the index value is distinct from the result type and outcome associated with a game play record and the game play record itself need not indicate whether it is a winning or losing record or any amount which may be won.
The method according to the present invention also includes the step of communicating the record index associated with a particular game play record from the central processing system to the player terminal. The particular record index is communicated to the player terminal in response to a game play request which a player has entered at the player terminal. The player terminal responds to the received record index by generating display commands to produce a graphic representation at the player terminal. This graphic representation is consistent with the result type associated with the particular record index which has been communicated to the player terminal.
Again using the example of a game adapted to imitate the play of draw poker, the graphic representation produced by the display commands comprises a graphic representation of a particular draw poker hand. The particular record index communicated to the player terminal may, for example, comprise an index value associated with the result type xe2x80x9cfull house.xe2x80x9d In this example the graphic representation produced at the player terminal comprises a graphic representation of a collection of cards amounting to a full house.
All of the information and functions required to produce a particular graphic representation for a given record index are stored and maintained at the player terminal. Only the record index, comprising a value from the set of unique index values, must be communicated to the player terminal in order for the player terminal to display the results of the game play. This arrangement minimizes the amount of data which must be transferred to the player terminal in response to a game play request. Also, employing a record index readily accommodates multi-level game play and different types of game representations required to imitate different types of games.
One preferred form of the invention also includes the step of maintaining an index table at the player terminal. The index table includes a different table entry for each unique index value in the set of index values. Each table entry also preferably includes a prize value associated with the respective index value. When the central processing system communicates a record index to the player terminal, the player terminal may query the index table with the record index to locate the table entry for the corresponding index value. The prize value included in respective table entry may then be read and used to notify the player of the prize won in that play. Pointers to program resources necessary to generate an appropriate display may also be stored in the various index table entries.
In some forms of the invention, numerous different games may be in play at any given time. Each set of game records stored at the central processing system may utilize a set of index values which is unique to that particular set of records or in which the individual values are defined uniquely for that set of game records. In order to accommodate these multiple games using different index value sets or differently defined index values, each game play record may include a table identifier along with the record index. The table identifier is communicated to the player terminal along with the associated record index in response to a play request from the player terminal. This table identifier is used at the player terminal to match the associated record index to the correct index table at the player terminal.
When applied to a multi-level lottery-type game where the levels are interrelated, the method according to the invention includes the step of maintaining a number of pools of additional level game play records at the central processing system. Each different pool of additional level game play records is associated with a permissible response which the player enters through the player terminal after the terminal produces a graphic representation in an initial game. Each additional level game play record includes an additional level record index which is preferably selected from the same set of unique index values employed in the first level or initial game. Thus, index values which make up the record indexes are associated with the same result types employed in the first level game.
When the player enters one of the permissible responses at the player terminal, the terminal communicates this permissible response to the central processing system as a game play request in an additional level game. The central processing system responds by communicating a particular additional level record index back to the player terminal. This additional level record index is associated with a particular additional level game play record stored at the central processing system. The player terminal responds to the additional level record index by generating additional level display commands to produce an additional level graphic representation at the player terminal. This graphic representation is consistent with the result type associated with the index value comprising the received additional level record index and is also consistent with the permissible response made at the player terminal. In other words, the additional level graphic representation is consistent both with the received additional level record index and with the graphic representation from which the permissible response was made in the earlier level game.
Referring again to a lottery-type game adapted to imitate draw poker, the initial record index received at the player terminal may comprise an index value associated with a xe2x80x9cjacks or betterxe2x80x9d result type, for example. In this case, the player terminal responds to the initial record index by producing a graphic representation of a draw poker hand of the value xe2x80x9cjacks or better.xe2x80x9d This graphic representation may include any hand fitting this description such as a hand showing a pair of kings, a 2 card, an 8 card, and a 9 card of suits which do not affect the value of the hand. In this example, one permissible response which may be entered by the player at the player terminal would be to hold the two kings and discard the remaining cards shown in the representation. As discussed in detail in prior related application Ser. No. 09/479,975, this permissible response represents a game play request in a second level game which may be entitled the xe2x80x9cpair of Jack""s or betterxe2x80x9d game.
The central processing system responds to this permissible response/additional level game play request by communicating a particular additional level record index to the player terminal. In response to the particular additional level record index, the player terminal generates additional level display commands to produce at least a hand of xe2x80x9cjacks or better,xe2x80x9d and including the two kings which the player has held in their permissible response. The result type associated with the index value comprising the additional level record index may, for example, comprise the result type xe2x80x9cthree of a kind.xe2x80x9d In this example, the additional level graphic representation at the player terminal will include a representation of a draw poker hand with three kings and two additional cards which add no value to the hand. Two of the three kings in the hand will be representations of the same two cards held from the initial graphic representation. Thus, the additional level graphic representation is consistent both with the additional level record index and the permissible response/earlier level graphic representation.
The method according to the invention is implemented using computer program code. This program code includes play request processing program code executed at a central processing system processor, and display control processing program code executed at a suitable player terminal processor. In addition to the processor at the central processing system, the apparatus for implementing the invention also includes a game play storage device suitable for storing the various pools of game play records included in the game or games which may be played. Similarly, the player terminal also includes a suitable storage device for storing the index tables and other resources used at the terminal to generate the required display commands and produce the required graphic representations.
Utilizing index values according to the present invention rather than complete descriptions of an electronic lottery tickets reduces the amount of data which must be communicated from the central processing system to the player terminal. The present record index arrangement also provides a great deal of flexibility in the play of the lottery-type games and flexibility in payout schedules used in the games. In particular, the use of record indexes according to the invention facilitates the play of multi-level, interrelated lottery-type games which can be used together to closely imitate casino type games while providing all of the benefits of lottery-type games.
These and other objects, advantages, and features of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments, considered along with the accompanying drawings.